Barron Mills

Barron Mills is a servant leader. Having grown up as the son of a career Army officer, and then serving in the Marine Corps himself for 20 years, he has been on five continents and to dozens of countries and seen the best and worst that the world has to offer. A habitual problem solver, Barron believes the best source for solutions is a free market where ideas, people, and processes succeed on their merit.

Barron’s expertise includes cross-functional team building, stakeholder management, concept development, organizational planning, resource management, technology integration, and leadership. He relishes opportunities for adapting to unique and challenging situations in order to deliver distinctive products.

His prior experiences include leading Marines on missions in the Mediterranean, Haiti, Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan; screening and evaluating Marine Corps officer candidates; building and then assisting a 3,000-man Iraqi infantry brigade; managing operations for a schoolhouse with 14 unique courses and 6,000 annual students; managing a $42M project to develop and sustain a command and control training system; managing a 6-month collaborative effort of 12 distinct organizations and 50 subject matter experts to demonstrate a first-of-its-kind technological training capability to the Marine Corps (recognized with the 2015 Excellence in Marine Air-Ground Task Force Engineering Award by Marine Corps Systems Command); managing a $7M annual contract with a staff of 60 personnel providing project management, logistics, instructional systems design, engineering, cost analysis, and administrative/operations support to the Marine Corps, and serving as the Executive Director for Florida Association of Veteran Owned Businesses. Barron’s eclectic background includes a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry, Masters of Science in Program Management, and Level 3 certification in Defense Acquisitions for Program Management.

Along with his dual-primary roles as Executive Director for the Florida Photonics Cluster and Director of the Industrial Affiliates Program for the College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida, Barron’s activities include serving as: strategist and connector through his business in solutions, LLC; Board Member with the Camaraderie Foundation; Head Coach for FourBlock Orlando; Vice President for the Central Florida Chapter of the First Marine Division Association; member of the Valencia College Business Advisory Council; and mentor through Veterati.com. Barron is also a co-founder of Veterans Beer Club Orlando and a graduate of Leadership Orlando Class 94.